Entries with the tag: bryce salvador

This is something that many Los Angeles Kings’ and New Jersey Devils’ fans are wondering when it comes to tonight’s Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at the Staples Center.

What these fans, along with those in the hockey media, are wondering is if the Devils can come back from a 3-0 series deficit to tie the series and force a Game 7 at the Prudential Center on Wednesday night. If you are a Kings’ fan, you have to be just a tad bit nervous considering what the situation is now.

In the Kings’ first three games, the team squeaked out the first two with overtime wins and then came through with a convincing 4-0 win in Game 3. After that, however, it has been all about the Devils.

In Game 4, the Devils got clutch goaltending from future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur and a veteran-like game winning goal from rookie Adam Henrique en route to a 3-1 win. At the time, many fans probably thought that this would be the only Devils’ victory of the series considering that heading into Game 5 at the Prudential Center, the Kings were a perfect 10-0 on the road.

That perfect record was snapped last night as the Devils came up big with 2-1 victory to close the series to 3-2. Both goals came off of strange plays as on the first one, Zach Parise cashed in on a rare Jonathan Quick playing the puck mistake while the Devils’ second goal, scored by defenseman Bryce Salvador, went in off of Kings’ defenseman Slava Voynov.

This appears to be the case for the New York Rangers as the team dropped Game 4 at the Prudential Center to the New Jersey Devils by a score of 4-1.

For the third straight series, the Blueshirts will go into Game 5 tied with their opponent. While this probably should not have happened against both the Ottawa Senators and Washington Capitals, the Rangers certainly deserve this fate after the way they played tonight.

The Blueshirts came out extremely flat in the first period and paid for it. The Devils picked-up two goals (Bryce Salvador and Travis Zajac) and were outshot 12-9 in the process. Had it not been for the strong play of Rangers’ netminder Henrik Lundqvist (26 saves), the period could have been much worse for the Blueshirts.

The team also racked up 41 minutes in penalties. While it was good to see the Rangers play a physical brand of hockey, spending that much time in the penalty box does not help anyone and only takes your best players off the ice for an extended period of time, something the Rangers cannot afford to do on any given night.

When Martin Broduer went down with an injury in early November, many hockey pundits and fans thought that the New Jersey Devils were done. They weren’t scoring a lot of goals, they weren’t really winning and lastly, they would have to rely on Kevin Weekes and Scott Clemmensen.

Well, just over four months later, the team is near the top of both the Eastern Conference and the Atlantic Division thanks to timely goal scoring from the likes of Patrik Elias, Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner, solid defense from Colin White, Bryce Salvador and Paul Martin and solid special teams.

However, one area that everyone is overlooking is the solid goaltending from Clemmensen. The 31-year-old netminder from Des Moines, IA, is proving to folks around the club and the league that he can play with the big boys and that ultimately, he can play well. Through last night’s game against the Boston Bruins, Clemmensen has compiled 24 wins in 37 games while posting a 2.23 goals against average and a .922 save percentage with two shutouts (both happened this week against the New York Rangers and Bruins).